A regional boutique law firm has developed a new IT system, allowing it and others to do more work with less people.

LawLab, based in the NSW towns of Nyngan and Cobar, has developed a system called Launch in-house, which allows clients to access and monitor the progress of their project while allowing LawLab to do more with less.

CEO of LawLab Ian Perkins said the firm was required to establish Launch because of the staffing pressures a regional practice such as LawLab faces. “When we first moved to [the] country to establish the practice, we found that there were some very skilled professionals in the areas where we were working, but there was a limitation on the number of staff we could find with those skills,” he said.

After investigating the market through market research, Perkins decided online legal advice was the best possible solution to facilitate growth and set about finding a suitable IT system to aid their main area of business – land and water conveyancing. After extensive analysis of the processes involved, the firm introduced Launch and is now looking to extend its reach further. “We wanted to create a platform that would allow all parties involved in a deal to come together...so that everyone knows what the others are doing and where the deal is up to,” said Perkins. “Launch allows our clients to manage the process and set parameters,” he added. The phase two of Launch will be applicable to any legal process, said Perkins. “We can tailor the system to an individual client’s requirements,” he said.

Perkins said he often had to dispel myths surrounding the capabilities of regional practices, and was regularly required to ‘think outside the square’. “For us to get work our tender has to be even better and promise to do more,” he said, “because it’s very easy for a client to drop you for one of the more well-known national law firms.”

LawLab is one of the major advisors on the Federal Government’s Murray Darling Basin plan and has been at the forefront of water trading for the past 10 years. Perkins has been involved in cross jurisdictional water resources law practice since his time at Corrs Chambers Westgarth. After acquiring two local firms in Nyngan and Cobar, he established LawLab as a specialty water and land conveyancing practice with former Blake Dawson clerk Richard Bootle. The firm now has more than 20 staff across Nyngan, Cobar and Canberra, including seven dedicated IT professionals in Melbourne.